Question:
Answer:
No, Jesus didn’t sin. As the Incarnate Word, the eternal God who became man, Jesus was incapable of sin. If Jesus sinned or was vulnerable to sin, he would have shown himself either conquered by or vulnerable to an outside force, because he would not be omnipotent (all-powerful) to overcome that outside force and thus not eternal God.
St. Paul illustrates that anger itself can be virtuous and therefore not necessarily sinful: “Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,and give no opportunity to the devil” (Ephesians 4:26-27).
In the outer court of the Jerusalem Temple, which was open to Gentile pilgrims, merchants sold sacrificial animals and exchanged foreign currency so that Jewish pilgrims could pay the Temple tax. However, the merchants inflated the price of the animals and cheated on currency exchanges, impeding the worship of both Jews and Gentiles, the former because of overpriced animal offerings and unjust exchange rates, and the latter because of the scandal those actions gave them. Recall that Isaiah prophesied that all one would one day gather at the Temple for prayer, including the Gentiles (Isa. 56:3-8).
So Jesus righteously rebukes the money-changers, because the Temple is a sanctuary of worship, not a place for financial profit (Matt. 21:12-17; John 2:13-22; see CC583-84).